Assessment of illegal granite quarrying to be over this month

The assessment regarding worth and quantity of illegally mined granite in this district would be completed by this month, official sources said today.
The assessment was ordered following a report submitted by then District Collector U.Sagayam last year that pegged the loss to the state exchequer due to illegal mining of granite at Rs.16,000 crore in the last two decades.
As part of the assessment, surveys were conducted in 175 quarries, and it was found that illegal mining had been done in 86 of them, the sources said.
Police had registered as many as 80 cases and arrested 60 persons, including partners of the major granite firm PRP Exports, Sindu Granites, and chargesheet had been filed.

Officials seized 1.80 lakh granite blocks, and revenue department official John Louis was appointed as a special officer to assess the value of the granite slabs illegally mined,according to quality.
Sixteen teams, comprising assistant director of mining, were involved in the assessment work for the past six months using a variety of techniques.
The teams had been asked to give their report before this month,the sources said.